


A mirror

by Thetalkingcherry



Category: Naruto
Genre: Graphic Description of Corpses, Graphic Descriptions of Torture, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-22
Updated: 2021-02-22
Packaged: 2021-03-12 13:34:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29635392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thetalkingcherry/pseuds/Thetalkingcherry
Summary: Thoughts about what happen when Itachi tortured Kakashi inside his own head for three days and how did he manage to last that long and get out. After all, curiosity killed the cat but satisfaction brought it back...half dead, almost loosing it and ready to drown, but still.
Relationships: Hatake Kakashi/Maito Gai | Might Guy
Comments: 2
Kudos: 20





	A mirror

**Author's Note:**

> This work has some depictions of psychological torture, and some graphic depictions of physical torture, so please have that in mind. If you think it might trigger you please don't read it and if you are halfway there but feel it's triggering you, go back, don't read further! Remember: safety first! ( ͡❛ ₃ ͡❛)
> 
> Cursive is Kakashi's intrusive thoughts, either manipulated by Itachi or by his own head. Bold is Itachi talking. 
> 
> Also, this was something that came to my mind after watching Kakashi's AMBU adventures again, after all, Kakashi is not new to his own mind reminding him of everything and everyone he has lost, so what happens when someone else tries to do the same but adding physical torture to the mix. Fun times, I'm sure! No wonder why he was comatose for like a week but to even get Itachi and Kisame impressed, well, he must have found something interesting to hold on to while in there.

His feet don’t touch the red ground, he is crucified on wood like a scarecrow. _How fitting._ Kakashi wants to laugh at the irony, after all, he always had a dry sense of humor and Itachi had spent more time with him than with Fugatu after he was placed in AMBU.

One of the multiple clones of Itachi drives a sharp knife through his abdomen, in a mock of the wound his father had when he found him. Still, a bit crooked, too clean to be close to the original. As soon as that thought vanishes the wound is a perfect reflection of the one on his father.

Oh…

_**"Its laughable, always fought the shadow your father left over you, but you failed. After all, you failed them."** FAIL. FAIL. FAIL. _

The images of the rotten corpses of Rin and Obito stare at him with those dead eyes full of worms, faces eaten by time and the insect’s hungry little mouths. He can almost smell the putrid scent of their rotten bodies, mixed with the unmistakable scent of burned flesh. His mind using all the memories of corpses he had seen and smelt through the years to make a perfect recreation of them. He twists on instinct to get away from them but he cant. 

_**"The only regret you have is that you wish you had died with them, and now, you just can’t. Is that why you spend so much time between** _ **_tombstones?"_ **

Another sword punctures his chest, and he cries in pain. He can’t move and the images keep appearing before him, their voices and cries reprimanding him, and they are right, all of them. He left them, he killed them, _his hands are stained forever…_

He is killed and cut, and he has seen his own intestines fall to the red floor (that looks too much like the fresh blood of everyone he had murdered), too many times to count. Sometimes he is left in darkness by both his eyes being torn away from him, only to wake up and be complete, a new canvas ready to be tortured again by the image of Itachi and of those he called his friends.

It is on what feels like the second day, when Gai has been the one to cut his throat and spit at him, a reminder of how much he deserves, that Kakashi asks Itachi, _“_ Why don’t you kill me?”

The figure just laughs loud and the screeching noise, that sounds too much like a sword cutting through glass, makes Kakashi’s ears bleed.

 _ **“Because you don’t have the right to, because it would be too easy, too merciful”** _He cuts his fingers, the blood stains the wood and Kakashi screams, but Itachi continue _s “ **You wouldn’t be able to pay what you did to them, you don’t deserve a peaceful death”**_

His laugher continues and so does the pain and...

**_"You are alone now because that is what you deserve"_ **

_You deserve this, you deserve this, you killed us._

That voice that sounds so much like Kushina’s says and it is then, after those words, that Kakashi laughs, drops of blood are caught by his mask and the pain is so great but he really can’t help it. He has found it. Three days inside his head, probably mere seconds outside of it, and he has finally found it. 

He had learned from his father --way too early in life--, that everyone has a weak spot, a breaking point. Itachi had found his, but unfortunately for him, he had not been the first one to exploit it, after all, Kakashi’s own mind had been there before and that is just what the Sharingan does, isn’t it? There, inside his head, Itachi had control over him but how did this work exactly? Guess he didn’t lose anything else by asking.

“So much time has passed since you left, since you were ordered to kill them”

Itachi doesn’t even flinch, he’s stronger than that, and Kakashi did not expect anything less... but Itachi cuts his mouth then, in a mocking drawing of a scarecrow’s. It is a warning.

Kakashi doesn’t stop, blood drips and mixes with saliva and he chokes as he tries to speak.

“Did you find yourself in that time? I hope you did, it seems like you did at least” Kakashi is playing with fire and itachi punctures his left lung, Kakashi chokes and he can’t breathe and it hurts so bad but he keeps on going. He wonders if he found himself, found love because if Kakashi did, then Itachi must have too, right? _Isn't that right, Itachi?_ _What are you running away from, Itachi? Do you remember that day, Itachi? Are you that excited for Sasuke to find you? What will happen then? Do you have a plan? You must have a plan...do you miss him? Your dead?_

Images of a burning fire appear, the disgusting and distracting scent of charred corpses hurts his nose and makes him flinch, there is a loud noise that won't let him... _see_.

He tries again. 

“I have spent so much time in front of tombstones, Itachi. You are right” He says and even if his words aren’t understandable he knows Itachi hears them because in his mind he doesn’t need a mouth to speak, or to get one of the mangled corpses of his friends to speak for him. “And I have learned that time doesn’t stop just because you want it to, just because you are too trapped inside your own grief”

_Tell me, Itachi, tell me about them, tell me, TELL ME, TELL ME, TELL ME._

And it is Sasuke who is screaming, demanding now, him and Naruto and Sakura appear in front of him and they die in the many ways Kakashi thought they would after that day when he decided to pass the team because that is what he does, isn't it? _He fails everyone, he kills them._ And they do die, corpses falling onto the red floor, but Sasuke doesn't, the image Kakashi's mind has supplied is just there and he won't stop demanding. Screaming.

Gai appears suddenly only to become ash, a death that certainly awaits him, and a scream is torn from Kakashi as his right lung is punctured and he is dying slowly again. Pain invading his senses as darkness tries to claim him again, except this time Kakashi doesn’t let it. He continues talking, thinking, even with his destroyed and bleeding mouth and with blood in his airways, and with that noise and those eyes tearing into him, enough to make him want to give up and beg...but he can’t, not when he found something interesting, not when he needs to prove his little point, not when he wants to satiate his own fucked up curiosity, the same one that would make him feel no regret when maiming a limb, the same he hates so much but can't let go of.

“Because you do grief, don’t you Itachi?” The noise of electricity cracking through the air floods his senses and his heart is teared from his own chest, a vivid image of Rin and suddenly he can feel her warm blood like it’s his own hand that has destroyed his own heart.

_Just like you did to her._

The voices are louder and he is about to fall again, curiosity has killed the cat…

“What do you grief? Why do you really grief? Why did you actually leave Sasuke behind?” _TELL ME TELL ME DO YOU REALLY HATE HIM?_

_This is my grief, this has been my fault, I break everyone, I am cursed, I will kill everyone I hold dear, because that is what I do, because that is who I am. I KILLED THEM. DO I REGRET IT?_

“Am I a mirror, right now, Itachi?"

Just like that he is back on the water, the skies are as clear as any other summer day, the breeze of the water hits him as the river under his feet forms little waves.

“I have never known of anyone to last that long, or at all” Kisame says behind Itachi but the Uchiha doesn’t move, eyes still trained to Kakashi’s. So it **had** been days...

Kakashi falls on one knee, still refusing to let go, thoughts are still going fast inside his head, and perhaps he has gained a new use for his own left eye, but the voices and people screaming won’t stop, now speaking freely, talking to him, reminding him of every nightmare, even those Itachi didn’t use and he is too tired to shut them up, too tired to think, too tired to remind himself they are not real, that they are long gone and have since happened (that they have been long since buried under the ground, but that just makes it worse). His hand aches for a Kunai, he needs to remind himself they are not real, he needs to focus. 

Itachi still hasn’t moved and it must have been exhausting for him too because Kisame reminds him to stop hurting his eyes, it makes perfect sense, of course, but not even those words register, but if he lets go, then Asuma and Kurenai will be left to their mercy and Kisame seems to be as crazy (or even more so) than Zabuza and Itachi is really _obsessed_ with not letting his eyes rest and _he really does look just like he did all those years ago, doesn’t he? Maybe he does too, maybe they all do, except now they are older and covered in even more blood and where did Tenzo come out from? Why is he being chocked by snakes and…_

Green.

Green and orange and suddenly it’s okay, he can let go and the waves receive him gladly and he can finally close his eyes, a single memory attacking him now.

_Lips kissing his hair, Gai's warm's body next to his, holding him, his soft voice whispering._

_"I know you can't say it right now, Kakashi, and that is okay. But I also know that you think that you only deserve hatred and pain, but that is not true. You are not alone, because that is what you deserve, Rival, and I am not leaving"_

**Author's Note:**

> Original story and characters belong to Kishimoto. This work was not made for profit, only for entertainment.
> 
> You can find me on tumblr like @ anotherdayontheenterprise.


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